Frangled, or Eugene's Big and Not-His-Business Adventure in Arendelle
by Appello
Summary: A rewrite of the Coronation Scene in Frozen from Eugene's perspective. How I could envisage he and Rapunzel getting caught up in the events of that night, and just what Eugene might think of his wife's involvement in the carry-on.


**A/N: So I'm a little late to the party with this whole Tangled/Frozen cross-over stuff, but I recently stumbled across this story I wrote ages ago and thought why not, I might as well upload the thing since I wrote it and all.**

 **This is essentially a rewrite of the coronation scene in Frozen from Eugene's perspective, and how I could envisage Rapunzel getting tangled (heh, pun) up in all the excitement.**

 **I hope anyone who stumbles across this enjoys it for what it is, a harmless bit of fun. Don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think, constructive criticism included!**

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Disclaimer: Neither Tangled nor Frozen belong to me. All characters in this story are the ownership of their respective creators. I make no profit from this story.

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~~ Frangled ~~

OR: How Eugene Got Himself Tangled in Something Very Very Big and Not At All His Business

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"Eugene, look!"

Rapunzel grabs at his sleeve, gesturing to the centre of the ballroom where her cousin, the recently coronated Queen of Arendelle, stands surveying the room.

In all honesty he is more interested in his glass of punch than the goings on of the royal family, but he feigns interest for Blondie's sake. "Yeah, your crazy uptight older cousin. What about her?"

"No, not her," tutts Rapunzel. "Look at Princess Anna and Prince Hans."

"Prince who?"

"Prince Hans, of the Southern Isles," she says in a tone of mock exasperation. "Were you even paying attention during the introductions?"

"No."

She narrows her eyes at him, but he can see from the way her lips are pursed that she's not really angry. After three years of marriage he can read her moods almost perfectly. "He and Anna have spent all evening together," she informs him primly.

"Poor bugger."

"Eu _gene_!"

"What?" he raises his hands in mock surprise. "Blondie, have you tried this punch? I think there's some kind of herb in it – "

"Look," she says, completely ignoring his attempts at changing the topic and dragging him back to Queen Elsa. "I think Anna's going to introduce him."

He snorts, watching in amusement as the man is indeed led forward to meet the princess' sister. He can't help but feel sorry for the guy, especially when the Queen turns an icy stare his way. Boy does he know that feeling.

"He's so handsome," Goldie gushes, and Eugene's sense of empathy evaporates.

"Sure, if you like bulky redheads with side-burns," he retorts.

Rapunzel shoots him an exasperated look, no doubt catching the jealousy in his voice even though he'd tried to hide it. Sidling closer, she ghosts the pads of her fingers across his pulse point, making his heartbeat spike and his fingers twitch. "Of course, he's not as handsome as you," she whispers, her breath sending delicious tingles down his neck and making him wish they were alone rather than surrounded by half the nobility of Europe.

"No, definitely not," he replies somewhat thickly.

She huffs in amusement, raising a hand to trace the line of his jaw. Eugene's grip tightens around the stem of his glass as he resists the urge to grab her and press her against the wall.

"When can we leave?" he asks in an attempt at casual that comes off more like a strangled growl.

A laugh bubbles up inside her, light and carefree as summer, before she drops her hand and moves to stand in front of him, the back of her head resting ever so slightly against his shoulder. He can feel the curve of her hips against him, and it is only through a commendable effort of will that he manages to keep from drawing her closer.

"Seriously," he says, bringing his lips to the shell of her ear and smirking when he hears her breath hitch. "Let's get out of here. We've said our congratulations."

"Not yet," she murmurs, and he feels a degree of satisfaction at how unsteady her voice is. "Look at them, aren't they cute?"

He drags his eyes back to the royal family, where Anna and the prince are arm in arm and ducking their heads shyly before the Queen. After a moment of observation he decides that cute is not the word he'd use to describe them. The princess looks as though she is about to burst into tears, and the expression on Queen Elsa's face is – there's no other word for it – horrified. Eugene feels a stab of unease and unconsciously finds himself wrapping an arm around Blondie's waist.

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" she asks, tilting her head and exposing the pearly plane of her neck to him. Eugene can't resist nuzzling her. He knows it's not appropriate; knows that if anybody happened to glance in their direction they would probably be scandalised at their intimacy. But nobody is paying any attention to them. Whatever conversation Queen Elsa is having with her younger sister, it doesn't appear to be going very well, and their raised voices have now attracted the attention of everybody in the room.

Eugene watches as the Queen turns her back and begins to walk away. The action is so obviously a rejection that Eugene doesn't need to hear the words to know what has happened. Rapunzel is watching too, and her smile fades at the stricken look on Princess Anna's face.

"Oh no," she murmurs. "Eugene, what – "

But whatever she is about to say dies in her throat as Anna disengages herself from Hans and races towards her sister. She catches Elsa's sleeve and spins her around, yanking one of her silk gloves free in the process.

Eugene can hear the redhead's raised voice, but he doesn't catch her words, nor does he really care; his preoccupation is with Rapunzel, who looks on the verge of tears as she watches the fight unfolding before them. When the Queen turns away again Eugene tries to steer Rapunzel in a similar direction, but she doesn't budge and a moment later Anna's voice is ringing around the silent room, loud enough that there's no pretending he can't hear what she is saying.

"What did I ever _do_ to you?"

The music has stopped, and every single pair of eyes fixes on the siblings.

"Enough, Anna." The Queen's voice is soft, pacifying, clearly aware of the attention they are drawing. But the younger girl doesn't listen, her cheeks flushed with anger and her eyes over-bright as she shouts back.

"No! Why – why do you shut me out? Why do you shut the _world_ out? What are you _so afraid_ of?"

"I said enough!" Elsa shouts, and Eugene isn't sure what happens next, except that there's a deafening crack, and a sound like breaking ice, before thousands of razor-sharp spikes suddenly explode from the floor.

He reacts instinctively, grabbing Rapunzel and pushing her behind him, his body shielding her from the shards of ice that fly through the air. She gives a gasp of surprise and presses against his back, her arms curling around his middle and clutching the front of his vest.

"What's going on?"

He puts a hand over her own smaller one, his eyes scanning the room in an attempt to answer her question. The ice has formed a semi-circle between the Queen and the rest of the party, pointing outwards at them all like spears. If Eugene didn't know any better he'd swear they were cast by Elsa herself, particularly given the expression of pure terror on the Queen's face, and the way her bare hand is cradled to her chest. But surely she couldn't have – surely she hadn't just –

"Sorcery," gasps the Duke of Weselton, speaking into the stunned silence and causing a fresh flood of whispers to break out amongst the crowd. Eugene watches as the Duke backs away from the wall of ice, taking shelter behind his guards. "I knew there was something dubious going on here."

"Oh no," moans Rapunzel, moving as though to intervene and only stopping when Eugene blocks her path and plants both hands on her hips to stop her. Her eyes are filled with tears of distress and confusion, but she lets herself be stopped from advancing forward, perhaps knowing there is little she can do.

Before anyone else can speak, the Queen flees the room. The silence she leaves is thick and frozen, at least until the Duke of Weselton breaks it with a sharp command.

"After her! Seize the witch!"

"No!" Rapunzel cries, breaking free of Eugene's hold. "Leave her alone!"

But the Weseltonians are already running off, and nobody pays any attention to Goldie's words. Nobody except Princess Anna, who stares with shocked, tear-filled eyes at Rapunzel as though unable to process what has just happened.

"Are you alright?" Blondie asks softly, reaching a hand towards her cousin. Her fingers come to rest on Anna's shoulder, and the contact seems to jerk the princess from her stupor. Her eyes widen and she glances around wildly.

"Elsa," she calls out. "Elsa?"

"Anna," Prince Hans attempts to intervene, but the redhead shakes him off. With another brief look around her at the stunned dinner guests and the sinister barrier of ice, she turns and sprints in the direction of her sister. After a moment's hesitation, Hans curses and follows her.

Eugene hurries to Rapunzel's side before she can disappear as well, his hand going to the small of her back in an attempt to steady her. She looks furiously upset, blinking back tears that make him want to start smashing things to make it better.

"It's alright," he says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She stares back but he doesn't think she really sees him, her green eyes full of memories.

"Rapunzel," he tries again, and she blinks at his use of her full name. "Come on, let's go – "

"No!" she pushes away from him. "No Eugene, we can't just – Elsa'snot a witch."

"I never said she was," he soothes. "But this isn't anything to do with us – " His natural sense of self-preservation is kicking in and all he can think of is getting himself, her and the frog as far away from that room as possible.

"Didn't you see the way they looked at her?" Rapunzel demands, her eyes glassy and her mouth puckered in that familiar pout which tells him he isn't going to get his way without a fight. "Didn't you hear what they _called_ her?"

The room is emptying as palace guards begin chaperoning people to the exits, dignitaries and other visiting royals readying themselves for a swift departure. Eugene wishes he was doing something similar, but their entourage is nowhere in sight, and Rapunzel doesn't look like she will leave voluntarily any time soon.

"I know, Blondie, people are rude and inconsiderate and you know what – " he tucks her hand under one arm and begins to forcibly pull her towards the exit, skating edgily around the ice-spikes that show no sign of melting. "Sometimes you can't change that. Sometimes you just gotta let it go and accept that in different kingdoms things are done – well, differently."

Rapunzel is silent for so long that Eugene begins to allow himself to believe that she agrees with him. But when he chances a glance at her face he can see the thin line of determination that her mouth is set in, and he knows with a sinking feeling that she hasn't given up that easily. She never does.

"That could have been me," she says quietly.

He grinds to a halt. "What?"

"That could have been me," she repeats, more forcefully. "Being called a witch. A sorceress. Having to flee my own palace because of my powers."

And all at once, he understands why the Queen's reaction has affected her so deeply. He feels a fool for not realising it earlier. After all, hadn't Goldie spent the first eighteen years of her life locked in a tower in the belief that the outside world was not safe for her? That they would judge her and curse her and try to burn her as a witch?

"Blondie, listen, that's completely diff – " but he is digging a hole for himself and he knows it. Even the frog is glaring at him. He tries a different tact. "You can't change the whole world."

"No," she agrees, squaring her shoulders. "But I can change this."

He doesn't attempt to stop her as she strides off, aware that to do so would be to cause a scene and besides, when has he ever been able to stop Goldie doing what she wanted? Instead he simply follows her, staying close in an attempt to feel like his presence is actually useful, and wondering why the hell he ever agreed to come to this stupid coronation in the first place.

The temperature outside is freezing. He can see Rapunzel shivering, but she shrugs off his attempt to give her his jacket, stepping out into the open and raising her hands to let the flakes of snow fall on her skin with an expression of wide-eyed wonder.

Eugene is momentarily distracted by how beautiful she looks, before he realises just what he is seeing. Blondie, and snow. Snow, and Blondie. In Arendelle. In July. In Summer. Eugene blinks, then blinks again, then pinches himself because frozen ice spikes are one thing, and glowing hair that keeps you eternally young is another, but a snowstorm in the middle of July is just a whole other level of weird and he didn't sign up for this when he agreed to meet Blondie's extended family.

They find Anna arguing with the Duke of Weselton, the crowd around them restless and uncertain as they too wonder at this remarkable new phenomenon. Many of them are admiring the palace fountain, which has frozen into an incredible, towering ice sculpture, all spikes and fractals and shimmering crystal which might have been quite beautiful if it were actually crystal, instead of, well, ice. In July.

"My sister's not a monster!"

Anna's voice is loud and angry and why does she have to be so damned loud all the time, thinks Eugene grumpily. Before he can think of a way to stop her, Rapunzel has rushed to her cousin's side. He follows with a roll of his eyes, distracting himself by thinking of all the different ways Blondie will have to make this up to him later.

"She tried to kill me," the Duke of Weselton proclaims, hiding behind his two hired grunts as though afraid of the diminutive princesses.

"You slipped on ice," says Hans rather contemptuously.

" _Her_ ice!"

"It was an accident," Anna pleads. Eugene could have told her to save her breath; it's obvious from the Duke's expression that he isn't going to be swayed. "She was scared. She didn't mean it. She didn't mean any of this."

Rapunzel nods solemnly, and reaches up to put a hand on Anna's shoulder. The redheaded girl blinks and gives Goldie a small smile in return.

"Tonight was my fault," says Anna in a resolute tone of voice. "I pushed her, so – I'm the one that needs to go after her."

There's a collective gasp, from the Duke and Hans but not from Rapunzel, who looks as though she has merely been waiting for Anna to say this very thing just so she can reply:

"So do I."

Something heavy and painful sinks to the bottom of Eugene's stomach, and he shakes his head furiously, as though to deny the words that have just left her mouth. He waits for Anna to refuse her assistance, or forbid it, or for any of the guards to object, because Rapunzel's a princess and surely nobody else thinks this is a good idea? But nobody says anything, until finally Anna asks in a soft, almost hopeful voice:

"Why would you want to help me?"

"Because you're family," Rapunzel says, her eyes flickering to Eugene and he thinks his chest might be constricting, because it is becoming very difficult to breathe. "And because I know what it's like to have a – a power that makes you feel as though you don't belong. I know I can help Elsa. I need to come with you."

"No!" the furious refusal comes from both Hans and Eugene at the same time, but neither of the girls pay them any heed.

"Would you really?" Anna asks, squeezing Blondie's hand in her own and oh god, why hasn't she refused, why can't she deal with her own ridiculous family dramas without involving his girl? And now Goldie is nodding and Eugene just knows this isn't going to end well.

"Wait," he grabs her hand as Anna hurries off yelling for a horse. He's desperate to make her see sense, but in his hurry to convince her his usual smoothness abandons him and he finds himself stuttering like a teenager. "You can't – this is a terrible – what are you think – just run off – your parents – "

"Eugene," she pats his arm in that soothing voice he both loves and hates, because it makes him want to wrap her up in his arms and never let her go and because he knows she only uses it when she's about to get her own way. "Eugene, it's okay."

"No it's not okay," he yells, wondering where in the seven kingdoms the Corona guards have got to, because they would surely be on his side right now and man, he really needs to work on their training and if the stupid horse was here right now he wouldn't stand for this either. "You don't even know these people!"

"They're my cousins," retorts Rapunzel.

"Blondie, you met them _today._ "

"So?" she lifts her chin in a painfully familiar act of defiance that reminds him why he fell in love with her in the first place. "I trusted you after I'd only known you for a day."

"And I told you then what a horrible decision that was!"

"Eugene, Elsa _needs_ me."

He wants to tell her that _he_ needs her, and far more than the Queen of Arendelle ever could. But instead he opts for, "I'm sure she knows what she's doing."

"I'm not," Rapunzel answers immediately. "And I'm not just going to sit around and twiddle my thumbs while she's out there lost and alone and probably terrified."

"You don't even know what's wrong with her!"

"Nothing's _wrong_ with her," Goldie throws back, her eyes fierce now. "That's what I need to get her to understand."

He rakes a hand through his hair, cursing her kindness and compassion and sense of reckless adventure that has led them to this point. And sure, he wouldn't change her for the world, but would it be too much to ask for just a tiny, teeny wheeny bit of survival instinct right about now?

Even though he knows it's useless, he tries one last time to get her to see sense. "Rapunzel," he begins, in his best I'm-wise-and-you-must-listen-to-me voice. "We're supposed to leave tomorrow. Back to Corona. Your parents are expecting you."

She gives him a small, warm smile that breaks his heart, and gestures with one hand in the direction of the fjord. "Look for yourself, Eugene."

And look he does. In wonder, in fear, and – if he's being honest – in a little bit of awe. Because the entire fjord is frozen, the ships of half the nobility of Europe suspended like useless wooden toys in the ice. Completely stranded.

"We can't go home, Eugene," Blondie says, squeezing his hand between both her own, and somehow, miraculously, she is still warm, despite the sub-zero temperatures. "Not until this is made right. And I know I can help."

His shoulders sag, and he closes his eyes for a moment in defeat before looking back up at her. "Then I'm coming with you."

She shakes her head, and the rock in his stomach grows in size. "No. I need you to stay here with Hans and look after the kingdom."

 _Screw Hans. Screw the Kingdom._ That's what Flynn Rider would have said. Eugene Fitzherbert bites back the words at the last second. "There's no way I'm letting you go out there alone," he says instead.

"She won't be alone," says Princess Anna, coming up behind them on her horse. Eugene glares at her like she is the second coming of Gothel.

"No," he insists. "No. You can't – I won't – "

Rapunzel smiles at him, then leans on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his and silence his protest. His fingers itch to draw her closer, to deepen the kiss and use his lips and tongue and hands to make her breathless and panting and swearing she will never leave his side ever again. You know, like they should have been doing at that very moment, alone, in their private chambers, on a warm and balmy summer evening? But she slips out of his grasp before he can react, and then the only thing he is holding is the cold.

"You're a good leader, Eugene," she says, sounding far too calm and composed and is he really the only person in the whole of Arendelle that can see how wrong this is? "I know you'll be able to keep things together until we return. Pascal, too," she adds, and it is only then that Eugene notices the frog perching on his shoulder, all blue and glum and looking as thoroughly dejected as Eugene feels.

"The frog?" he says stupidly. "You're leaving him behind?"

Rapunzel bites her bottom lip. "It's too cold for him out there. And he's a chameleon, Eugene, not a frog. Please don't fight with him."

"Fight?" he repeats incredulously, staggered that this is her foremost concern right before she embarks into the middle of the forest on a wild goose chase for a mentally unstable Ice Queen. "Are you serious?"

She moves across to Anna's horse, and Eugene decides that this has gone far enough, that he will simply have to throw her over his shoulder and drag her kicking and screaming back to the ship. Too bad if she hates him, if she attacks him with her frying pan and uses every rude word he's ever taught her against him. As long as she's safe by his side he doesn't care.

But he hesitates, only for a heartbeat, which is all it takes for her to swing up behind her cousin and wrap her arms around the redhead's waist. He watches numbly as his wife is given a winter cloak and scarf that aren't even his, for God's sake, and then the princess is kicking their horse and rearing to go.

"I leave Prince Hans and Prince Eugene in charge," she announces to the stunned gathering of townspeople. "Don't worry. I promise I will make this right."

And before Eugene can say anything, before he can yell or beg or formulate a masterful plan to get Rapunzel off the back of that goddamned horse and into his arms again – she is gone.

He stands there for a long time, staring at the spot where Rapunzel stood only moments earlier, and the rock in his stomach has swollen so much he thinks he might be sick. And what kind of guardian is he, what will her parents think, how will he possibly explain how he allowed this to happen, why didn't she listen to him and why hadn't he grabbed her and –

Eventually, his solitude is interrupted by the arrival of Corona's guard. The captain saunters up to him, handlebar moustache bristling, eyes scanning the scene around him in a sort of preposterous absurdity that would have been funny had Eugene not felt as though his heart had just been ripped out of his chest and thrown into the frozen fjord nearby.

"What's going on?" the captain demands. "Where's the princess? Why is everything frozen?"

Eugene tilts his head at him. The captain stares back.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Eugene asks.

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 **A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to let me know what you think. Peace :D**


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